With All My Love And More

The one who feigns innocence

© 2024 [CCBubs]

Once we got past the horrid amounts of people waiting to catch a glimpse of Giovanni, Giovanni helped me into his red vintage sports cars in cherry condition. I tried to figure out what it was, Giovanni must have noticed as he sat beside me in the driver's seat. "Ferrari 250 GTO," he gave me a sly smile, "You thinking of buying it off of me, little stella?"

I rolled my eyes at his question, "I'm sure I would have to sell my body to afford this car."

"Non ti lascero mai," he murmured to himself. (I would never let you)

"Huh," I frowned looking over to him, but he shook his head, giving me a faint smile.

"Enzo Ferrari gifted this car to my father when he was a young man, my father gave it to me when I graduated university." Wow. The Enzo Ferrari. That's pretty impressive.

"And you will give it to your son?"

"It would seem that is the common theme," he shrugged his shoulders.

"What if your daughter wants it?"

"Then she can have it?"

"What if your son also wants it?"

"My daughter will have it instead," he answered me, not noticing my detective work coming into play.

"Because she won't get the throne, even if she is born first."

Giovanni tilted his head in confusion. A frown deepening as he digested what I had said. "Perhaps I am wrong, but...do you have a problem with the Italian monarchy, Chance?"

"Why would you assume that," I challenged him, looking anywhere but him. I must play coy, it is my only advantage.

"Do you not like that it has only been men taking the throne, even with the abundant amount of women in the family," he looked over at me as he pulled over to the right, just outside of the entrance to the horse track.

"I didn't say that...but now that you say that I did notice only men have been Kings, even with women being first born," I shrugged my shoulders, recounting the hours of research I did in order to get a better understanding of his royal lineage. Boy, are there a lot of terrible rumors about his ancestors. From corruption to killing of a rival royal family member to incest. Some of the things I saw took me by surprise, but I'm sure if I did research on other royal families in the world it would be no different.

"Have you been learning about my dynasty through your various links-"

"I researched you," I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest. "I admit it, okay, I researched you. And I'll have you know, I did not appreciate your grandfather's sister being passed over for Queen." "And what's with this whole idea that all the people marrying into the family have to be Italian? HUH! Your Great Grandfather's brother was shamed for a whole year for dating a Belgian woman whom he loved, only to break up with her to marry an Italian woman to appease the people. And then that poor Belgian woman killed herself, and he killed himself over a broken heart!"

Giovanni suddenly took my hands, which I have had swinging about as I went about my rant. "You really did do some research. Didn't you, mi caro?"

"I couldn't help it," I pouted.

His eyes dropped to my lips, his own tongue dragging against his own before he took a deep breath and dragged his eyes back to my own. "My Grandfather's sister was passed over to be the reigning monarch for good reason. As for my Great Grandfather's brother, Matteo, his story is a tragedy our family wears on our sleeve everyday. You must understand Chance, it takes years to change a cultural viewpoint. After all, this is a country created on myth and mystery. There are not many records of the start of Italy other than it's existence during the Romans."